Associate
Hi everyone, my name is Tim but on forums I am better known under the name Hukkel. You may have seen more work from me in my almost finished buildlog of "GAME HARD, FOLD HARDER". That build is designated to be a great overall gaming pc but when not occupied it is a desktop system dedicated to non-stop Folding@home. Over time I have had many talks with people who fold 24/7 and invested time and effort to research the best number crunching hardware for its initial investing amount and even better for its power conservation. There seemed to be one specific hardware solution that scored high on both points. That is a 4 processor AMD Opteron™ system from Supermicro’s A+ branded (AMD) product line (http://www.supermicro.com/aplus/). Initially I wanted to build an Opteron 6100 system with 8 core CPUs, then upgrade in the future to 12 core 6100 series Opterons. To build this, the ideal solution pointed to a Supermicro G34 motherboard. With good timing and a bit of luck I got in touch with Supermicro to see if they would be up to sponsor this project. After discussing my ideas we found common ground in the high-performance, energy-efficient aim of this project along with support for Folding@home research. However, initial reaction was when they commit to something, they do it right. No cutting corners and nothing less than a perfect solution.
My contact who understood the nature and goal of this F@h project helped me acquire the ultimate combination of components to accelerate this build. With sponsorship from Supermicro I was provided a base platform of an A+ H8QGL-iF quad socket G34 motherboard, populated with four AMD Opteron 6300 series 16 core processors and a compatible SuperChassis CSE-748TQ-R1K43B.I was completely blown away by this turn of events. This is exactly what I really wanted to do. Build a big casemod resulting in an extremely strong folding setup that could run on 100% 24/7 easily yet still be as energy efficient possible...
Over time we’ve bounced back and forth ideas, concept sketches, hardware options and deadlines. Eventually the nickname for the build has come to the surface. Sometimes the best names come from what you don't make up yourself. My friend Ole dropped the name "Opteron prime" and I instantly knew it was right for this build. It will be server-grade and the highest-end build I’ve taken on in terms hardware. In addition, it will only be used for "the good" contributing to Stanford University’s Folding@home project to simulate the molecular dynamics of protein folding and help scientists find a cure for Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s and many forms of cancers.
After a few weeks the following two enormous boxes landed on my doorstep:
From here on the project started. I’ve contacted a few other companies to partner up as well. And I have managed to gather an impressive small group of companies that will be making this project possible in the desired timeframe with only the best hardware.
Now what I COULD do is place a few pictures from Sketchup to give you an idea. And then give you a list of the hardware I am going to use...but I rather not as that would leave no surprises. I would like this buildlog to be an “unfolding” for you as a reader as much as it will be for me building it. Don't worry, a lot of exciting updates and performance stats will be shown very soon. But how the build will end up looking like you will only know by keeping up to date on this buildlog.
For now I want to thank Supermicro in particular for making this project possible in its current form. It has presented me with an amazing opportunity and I will give it my all to try and make this a very powerful yet efficient, green folding machine.
